Violetta Vernet and the Laws of Time
by Fluffy Queen Miri
Summary: Minerva McGonagall didn't mean to end up forty years in her own future. But here she is, and it's now her mission to make sure Harry Potter survives school. And to get Draco and Hermione together. And to make Umbridge's life hell. And hope that no one realises that Violetta Vernet, fourth part of the Trio, is actually their teenaged Transfiguration Professor. Very AU! From OttP
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JKR, please don't sue me.**

**Rated for abuse, and occasional swearing**

_1946, One week into the summer holidays, Scotland, Home of Robert McGonagall_

Minerva McGonagall was fifteen years old, rather tall for her age, and a witch.

This was normal for her - as in, she had been fifteen since last October, she had been tall ever since her growth spurt several years ago, and a with ever since she could remember.

She was also crying.

This was not so normal.

In fact, you might even go as far as to say that it was extremely out of character.

But when you have trouble breathing because your ribs might be the slightest bit fractured, everywhere is burning, because bruises both old and new are throbbing, and there is something uncomfortably sticky on your back, that you think might be blood, but it hurts too much to turn around and check, you would probably cry too.

Particularly if your own father had done that to you.

Minerva lifted herself gingerly off the floor. Even five minutes after her father had banged out of the house, back down to the pub, it still stank of alcohol. She spotted a spilt puddle of beer near the door.

She gently wiped her split lip on her sleeve, decidedly not looking at the blood on it, she tiptoed into her own room, and sat on the bed.

She couldn't wait to go back to Hogwarts.

She neatly applied the bruise balm that the Matron had given her for her Quidditch injuries over the worst of the marks. It had to be used sparingly, after all.

Not for the first time, she toyed with a slim gold chain around her neck, and the Time Turner on the end of it, given to her last year by Professor Dippet, so that she could get to all her lessons.

It would be so simple, wouldn't it? To travel forward to the end of the holidays. Only forty days.

No one would ever know.

When she was little, she dreamed of running away, far away, from the abuse, and her father's hatred.

She couldn't help reminding him of her mother.

Her mother, who, in the end, _had_ run away.

Minerva McGonagall closed her eyes, and whispered a story to herself.

It was a small story, one that had comforted her on many nights like this one, when her skin smarted, and she could barely move.

_My name is Violetta Vernet._

_I do not have a father. Or a mother._

_I live with a kindly aunt, who took me in, and raised me as her own. _

_I am brave, and strong, and I am not afraid of anyone or anything._

_I am happy._

The Time Turner glittered in the moonlight, shining through the window. And Minerva McGonagall's emerald eyes flashed with it.

If she was Violetta Vernet, she wouldn't be afraid to do this.

She began to spin the Time Turner.

_One_

_Two_

_Three_

_Four _

_Five_

There was a loud thudding from downstairs, as her father clumped his way in, swearing at the top of his lungs. The pubs had clearly closed for the night.

_Thirteen_

_Fourteen_

_Fifteen_

_Sixteen_

She kept going, spinning it faster and faster, as his thudding footsteps made their clumsy way up the stairs.

_Twenty Eight_

_Twenty Nine_

_Thirty_

_Thirty One_

He had stopped outside her door, and Minerva's breaths were becoming panicked now, as he creaked the door open. Stil, she spinned it furiously.

_Thirty Four _

_Thirty Five_

She could smell the whiskey on her father's breath, as his bloodshot eyes pinned to the golden Time Turner.

_Thirty Seven_

_Thirty Eight_

He bellowed. "None of that hocus pocus in **my house**, you little-"

_Thirty Nine_

He backhanded her across the room, and she crumpled-

_FORTY_

The Time Turner shattered, golden sands flying everywhere. A small shard of glass drove itself into Minerva's thumb. She gave a tiny sob, and-

And Minerva McGonagall disappeared.

_1996, One week into the summer holidays, Grimmauld Place, Headquarters of the Order of the Pheonix_

Mad Eye Moody marched into the living room of grimmauld place.

"Tonks! Lupin!" He barked.

"Hmm?" Asked Lupin, looking up from his book. "Is something wrong?"

"Damn right, something's wrong." growled Moody. "We've just received a alert that someone, or something broke into McGonagall's old house."

Tonks opened her mouth to say something, but Moody carried on before she could utter a word. "Bearing in mind that of course, shes enchanted the place so even a _rat_ couldn' get in without her knowing, and the fact that she hasn't actually lived there in donkey's years, we need to check it out."

The three of them hurried away.

Leaving four Weasleys and one Granger staring curiously after them through the keyhole, Extendable Ears in hand.

**To be continued...**

**Read and Review Please!**

** Also I appreciate that so far, the plot is actually pretty similar to another fic called "My Future lies in the Past" by PattiCobain, which is actually really good, but, rest assured that mine is going to be ompletely different. Well, I guess it's already different as in it's in the Order of the Pheonix, not the Goblet of Fire, but, well, semantics. **


	2. Chapter 2

**You know the drill: Not mine in any shape or form.**

**And rated for abuse and occasional swearing. (Do I have to write all this every time?)**

**Guest: Sì, io sono sarà inludendo lui, anche se non come un personaggio principale. Mi scuso per il mio cattivo italiano.**

_ 1998, One week into the summer holidays, Scotland, former home of Robert McGonagall_

There was blood, trickling down her face. She tried to reach up a hand to wipe her face, but it hurt.

_Merlin_, it hurt.

She was lying on the floor. Dust swirled around her, clearly disturbed by her sudden appearance. It mingled with the floating sands of the Time Turner, and she froze, remembering Professor Dippet's warning when he'd first handed the Time Turner to her.

_"Whatever happens, you must not let the Sands of Time come into contact with the air. Remember that."_

She stirred, very quietly. Her furniture was covered... covered in dustsheets? She tried to frown, before whimpering softly, and relaxing her face again.

She doubted that her father had been sober enough all summer to even think of something as mundane as dustsheets.

Minerva closed her eyes. She was falling so slowly, drifting even into a peaceful oblivion.

The door opened, and she forced her eyes open. A gentle looking man was kneeling by her.

"Moody! Tonks!" he called, and Minerva, even in her befuddled state, wondered vaguely what a Tonks was.

A woman with pink hair poked her head through the door, before gasping, and hurrying over to them. She gently manoeuvred Minerva onto her lap, casting diagnostic spells over her.

"What is your name?" asked the man, and Minerva mumbled something under her breath, her eyelids drooping.

"Minerva McGonagall."

"No, what is your _ name_?" he asked again, more slowly this time.

"Minerva McGonagall." She breathed again, nestling into the pink haired woman' arms. The door opened a third time, and a large man, with one huge rolling eyeball came in. She decided to repeat her name for his benefit, considering that he hadn't heard it, and she didn't think she could stay awake long enough to wait for him to ask her. "Minerva McGonagall." A thought struck her. Was this, she wondered, what they called delirium?

"Hush, honey." Whispered the pink woman. "We'll take you to her, don't you worry. Sleep now, and you'll be all better when you wake up."

She needn't have said the last part. Minerva was already asleep.

_1998, One week into the summer holidays, Grimmauld Place, Headquarters of the Order of the Pheonix_

Hermione's eyes flew open, as the door to her and Ginny's bedroom creaked open, her hand searching for her wand. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ginny doing the same.

"Constant vigilance. That's what I like to see." came Moody's deep chuckle. Hermione relaxed, putting her wand down.

Tonks came in, carrying a something large, wrapped in blanket. Ginny yawned, loudly and pointedly, sitting up in bed.

"You girls don' mind if she sleeps in here, do ya?" Hermione and Ginny exchanged curious glances.

"Who?" asked Ginny.

"Dunno." Tonks shrugged, laying what Hermione realised must be a girl onto another bed. Tonks tucked her in, gently.

"If she wakes up," said Molly, "Then surel-"

"_When_ she wakes up," said Remus, "She can talk with McGonagall, and we'll take it from there."

Ginny's ears pricked up. "Why would she need to talk with McGonagall first?" She pouted. "Or, let me guess, is this another thing we're not supposed to know?"

"Not especially." replied Remus, mildly. "We don't know that much either. She appeared somehow in McGonagall's old house - we don't know how yet- and the only thing we've heard her say is _Minerva McGonagall_. I think we should let them talk to each other, don't you?"

Hermione peered at the girl curled in the bed, woollen blanket wrapped tightly round her shoulders. Her black hair was frizzing up a little, and she looked almost familiar, as if she'd seen her somewhere before.

She was still trying to remember why the girl looked so familiar when she fell asleep.

_Dreams are strange things. There are dreams you remember, and the dreams you forget. _

_The unfortunate thing is that you never remember good dreams. _

_Only the nightmares, and the dreams that you would rather forget. _

_Light was swirling round Minerva, morphing into strange creature that she tried in vain to puzzle out before they were gone. She felt one slither through her swirling hair, and shivered. _

_"Well, well, well. Minerva McGonagall. You've been rather a naughty girl, haven't you?" The voice seemed to come from all directions, taunting her as she spun, trying to find the source. I don't know what you mean, she shouted, but no sound came out of her numb lips. "You've broken the Laws of Time itself, little human." The voice was hissing in her ear now, and she jerked away, the light-creatures still cocooning around her, mocking her in their serenity._

_"Breaking the Laws will have consequences." A light-snake wrapped itself around her ankle, and she kicked it away, still trying to speak, to scream, to wake up from this horrible, horrible dream. _

_"What will the little mortals punishment be?" The voice mused to itself, as Minerva thrashed in the grip of the sliding light-creatures. " She's broken the Laws that must never be broken. The Laws of Time are deadly, little mortal." Minerva froze, as something wrapped itself around her arm. _

_"We could take something from you... That beautiful voice of yours, maybe..." Something stroked her neck and she gulped. " Your dreams, all that beautiful ambition of yours..." Something stirred from where it had woven itself in her hair. " Or maybe... " The light-creatures were tightening their hold on her..._

_"Maybe we could give you a gift." All the creatures froze, as one, before hurriedly retreating. Minerva breathed an almost inaudible sigh of relief. _

_"All the Old Ones have placed their players in this game. Fate has her Chosen Boy, Destruction has his Man who calls himself a Lord. War has placed his Deranged One by Destructions side, and Order has played her favourites with Fate . Love has mucked about with his little arrows, and has put down his Spies. " Minerva was barely breathing. _

_"Perhaps I should remind them of the eldest of the Old Ones." She could almost hear the smile. " You, Minerva McGonagall, will be my trump card. My ace in the hole." There was a booming chuckle, pressing in on her on all sides. " Old Father Time's secret weapon..."_

_Something was being pushed into her hand. She couldn't see it, but she could feel it pressing into her palm. "I've always been biased towards my favourites" Came the voice. "And you, mortal, seem very interesting. It will be curious to see how my little secret weapon will use the arsenal I've armed her with, eh?"_

Minerva awoke with a start, sunlight shining into her face. She groaned, before realising that this wasn't her bed. There was a woman, sitting by her bed. She looked completely composed, hair in a neat bun, square spectacles perched on her nose, except for her hands, which were tapping out a nervous rhythm of four out on her knee - so small a habit that Minerva would never have noticed if it hadn't been one of her own nervous little ticks. The woman had an air of familiarity about her, almost as if looking at the photograph of an ancestor, or a distant cousin.

Under the bedclothes, she felt something gripped tightly in her left hand, and almost gasped out loud.

She decided that under the circumstances, whilst it would be understandable, screaming was not a good idea.

**To be Continued! Read and Review Please! **

**What do you think the gift could be? Tell me? (Not asking because I have no fricking idea what it should be... Nope. Defintely not. )**


	3. Chapter 3

**Not mine, rated for abuse and swearing, also, MMAD is here, don't like that ship, don't read this, and yes, I know Dumbledore is gay, but I ship them, and JKR lost control of this fandom a long long time ago. *Cue the sound of me tryng to remember if I've left anything out here*Oh yeah, and I realise that they are both Minerva, and it's kinda confusing, but i think you can figure out which is which most of the time (Hopefully). Righto then:**

Minerva looked at the person before her, who reminded her so uncannily of herself.

The creepy thing about that sentence is that neither myself, nor either of the Minerva McGonagalls, in that dark room in Grimmauld Place, could tell you exactly which point of view the sentence was written from.

"Who are you?" asked the girl in bed, narrowing her eyes.

" I could ask you the same question." said the woman by the window, narrowing her eyes.

They glared at each other.

"My name is Minerva McGonagall." Said Minerva.

Both Minervas. One thought resonated through two minds, that were technically one.

_Oh, shit._

All four emerald eyes drew toward the twisted gold charm around Minerva's neck, that might, once, a long time ago, around forty years ago, in fact, have been a Time Turner.

"Never let the Sands of Time come into contact with the air." Breathed Minerva.

"So I was involved in a reaction - between the air and the Sands..."

"An ordinary Time Turner would have just sent you into the future, but combine the reaction with the displacement magic caused by the time-travel-"

"Surely that would cause a paradox, though?"

"Yes, and that paradox could eventually, with your naturally imbued magic, have the power to send you into a different timeline altogether..."

"Which is how I've ended up here. I'm in my own future, in an alternative universe! That's why there's two of us! In this universe, you either didn't use the Time Turner at all, or, when you did..." Her voice faltered, "Father- Father didn't catch you."

All the animation that been so present, only a few seconds ago, died. There was a moment of silence.

"Well, at least this proves what I've known all along!" Said the younger Minerva, trying to smile. "I'm a genius, I am!"

Both smiles were rather thin, and they sat together in silence for a minute. Younger Minerva's hand felt around beneath the covers, trying to figure out what it was that was gripped in her hand.

"How old are you?" asked elder Minerva, suddenly.

"Fifteen."

They both lapsed into silence again.

" I'm not going back, am I?" asked younger Minerva, plaintively.

"I doubt it." Minerva sighed.

"Right then. Care to give me an update on how things have been going the last-" She stopped abruptly, trying to do the math.

"Forty years." Minerva sighed again. "Quite a lot, unfortunately. Yes, I passed my OWLs." She said, as Minerva opened her mouth. " Now, let me see... Well, I'm working at Hogwarts, Transfiguration and Deputy...yes, I know... Hmm, I got married-"

"To who?" Asked Minerva, sitting up " Tom?" A pale blush stood out on her cheek as she said so, briefly flashing back to Tom, as he kissed her on Platform 9 and 3/4, that last day of term. He was a very good kisser, she had to admit.

"Ah." Minerva shifted awkwardly in her chair, "Yes, about him..."

"What?" she asked, cheeks still vaguely flushed, although she was frowning now. "We broke up?"

"Yes, but it's a bit more than that." Her lips were thin, as she told her younger self exactly what her ex-boyfriend had been up to the last 40 years.

Her ex-boyfriend, now better known as Lord Voldemort.

Minerva gaped at herself. "What?" She breathed, trying to process. "Tom- Tom turned evil?"

Her older self nodded subtly, something inscrutable in her eyes. Minerva suddenly realised what her friends meant when they referred to her "Ice Queen Face".

"So- who did I marry?" She asked, trying to sound casual. She doubted it worked.

"Albus Dumbledore." Minerva choked.

"_ Albus Dumbledore? _ As in, Albus Dumbledore, who is _supposed to be my Transfiguration teacher next_ _year? _"

"Yes." Minerva stared at her older self. There was a long moment of silence. Then she started to giggle. She fell back on her bed, laughing as if her life depended on it.

"_Oh my fucking god." _She gasped out eventually, still giggling madly. " This is so _weird_!"

"How observant of you." But her older self's lips were twitching too.

Suddenly, Minerva sat up. "Then... if I can't go back, and what do I do? I just... live out my life in my own future? I mean, how do we explain everything? I assume we can't just _tell _everyone that I'm you from the past?"

Her older self drummed her fingers on her knees. "No, we can't... the technology, the sheer power involved, it must have marked, or changed you in some way, which could potentially be manipulated to use you as some kind of weapon..."

Minerva froze, for a second. Her older self didn't know that she had somehow already become a weapon, only a day into her brand new timeline.

"...although we will have to tell some people, Albus, for instance, a few members of the Order..."

"What Order?" She interrupted.

"The Order of the Phoenix. Essentially a group dedicated to fighting Dark Magic, and Tom's followers, Death Eaters."

Minerva spluttered. "_ Death Eaters?_ God, he always was so _ melodramatic _ about this stuff."

"He _ was,_ wasn't he? All that drama about tracking down his birth parents and such. He was a good kisser though."

"Yep." They both fell silent, contemplating the utter weirdness of this situation.

"So how do we explain me? I mean, why am I here, where did I come from, what's my backstory? _Who am I?"_

The older Minerva leaned forward. "That," she told herself gently, "Is entirely for you to decide."

Minerva McGonagall looked herself in the eyes.

"My name is Violetta Vernet.

I have no father, and no mother.

And you are my aunt."

Beneath the bedsheet, her hand gripped something, willing, for the first time. A tiny ripple of warm power spread through her body, and she smiled the smile of a cat, who has got the cream.

_And I am far, far stronger, far far braver,and far, far more dangerous than even you know._

**TBC...**

**Read and Review please!**

**I appreciate that both Minervas are out of character, my explanation being that, well, there are two of them there, and crazy time travel stuff has happened, so they are, obviously, acting a little different to how they normally act. Also, she's a teenager, so she acts _ very_ different to her adult self. Mostly. **

**Also, from now on, in the story, older Minerva is called Minerva, or Aunt Tabby, and younger Minerva is called Violetta, or Letta. **


End file.
